Developers: PlayStation 4 Costs Comparable with Current Gen

The teams need to develop and deploy smarter development tools

Cost control

Rumors suggest that creating video games for the recently revealed PlayStation 4 is an expensive proposition, which might mean a lower number of core titles available for the pre-Christmas launch date.

But a number of developers believe that team sizes and costs have remained pretty much flat when compared to the current PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Herman Hulst, the managing director working on the new Killzone, tells Gamasutra that, “I can very simply share with you that when we did Killzone 2 and 3, we probably maxed out with a team size of 125. We have 150 now, so it's marginally bigger.”

He also reveals that it takes about the same time to create a game for the current generation and for the PlayStation 4.

He adds, “We've also learned a thing or two in previous installments on the PlayStation 3. So it's not, in terms of the cost, it's not as scary as maybe some people have led you to believe.”

Guerrilla Games is working on Killzone: Shadow Fall, the first video game that Sony revealed during the PlayStation 4 event in New York.

The video shown looked interesting and the graphics quality seemed to be on par with that delivered by a solid gaming PC, although changes are clearly possible before the console is actually launched.

The Evolution Studios team working on Drive Club says that it is working with a 110 man team, a small increase over its previous size.

Jonathan Morin, the creative director working on Watch Dogs at Ubisoft also believes that good development teams will be able to control costs and create quality on the PlayStation 4.

So far titles confirmed for the new Sony home console include: Killzone, Drive Club, Deep Down, Final Fantasy, Destiny, The Witness and new projects from Media Molecule and Quantic Dream.